The CDMT helps teachers, counselors, and parents assist their students or children in identifying an appropriate career direction and selecting or developing an educational program or plan that will provide the knowledge and skills needed to succeed within their chosen career field.

The process that students—or anyone else—must go through to identify a career direction and evaluate an educational preparation plan is provided in a six-step decision cycle that may be entered at any point and repeated over and over until a satisfactory conclusion is reached.